I still vividly remember the horrible day of May 9, 2022. My beloved sister had just passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. She was my best friend and she was only 45! After about a week, my parents asked that I accompany them in this complicated administrative process.
This meant helping with paperwork and being a witness before Adoul to testify to the identity of my beloved sister. Distraught and in full mourning but ready to take on family responsibilities, I was turned away by the Adoul.
For the simple reason of being a woman. Yes, in 2022, I was still not able to witness anything related to heritage and legacy even if it does not concern me directly. Angry and humiliated, I realized that we still have a very long way to go.
As this week we celebrate International Women’s Day, I hope we not only celebrate the achievements of women who have fought for change and gender parity, but also have an honest debate about the challenges that remain and need to be addressed. Let’s go beyond perpetuating gender stereotypes of giving bouquets of flowers, pedicure vouchers and roses on this day.
Let’s talk about rights so that half of the nation’s population can live with dignity and respect.
What changes have we made in recent years? How do we commit to being positive agents of change so that our children can grow up and enjoy the same rights and freedoms?
As a practitioner who has worked for over 18 years on inclusion and advancing peace processes in different parts of the world, I have witnessed how exclusion leads to instability, under -development and conflicts. Individuals and groups advocating for women’s rights and gender equality in Muslim-majority countries face several obstacles.
Some of these challenges include societal and structural barriers, illiteracy, economic exclusion, threats to physical and mental safety, gender-based violence and stigma. Women in rural areas often face greater challenges, such as higher rates of illiteracy, early marriage, and maternal mortality.
Often, the exclusion of women is linked to traditional patriarchal values and mentalities and, in this context, considered normal. As such, the advancement of women’s rights has been undermined by patriarchal cultural and tribal norms at the local level, instrumentalization and politicization by domestic political agendas on the one hand, and the foreign agenda, on the other hand.
We must examine the political nature of the formation of our knowledge and how the configuration of certain subjects prevents the questioning of the political, social, cultural or religious status quo.
While the Quran advocates justice and equality, which guarantees the rights of both sexes in equal measure, the interpretation of religious texts on women’s rights continues to be the product of male-dominated traditions that promote a patriarchal understanding of how women fit into society.
Given the centrality of religion in the public and private life of many Muslim-majority countries and its connection to the cultural norms of communities, the Islamic legal system offers a means to justify a new understanding of women’s positions in society. and to prioritize the voices, customs and practices of local communities.
Promoting inclusion and diversity through a humanistic reading of the Quran and the prophetic tradition is essential for gender equality and the fight against gender bias.
These lessons need to be generalized to raise community awareness and address harmful and restrictive practices. There is a need to empower women and girls while sensitizing men and boys in ways that transform gender inequalities.
The active roles of Muslim women in socio-political and religious life are still not integrated within the mainstream Muslim public as the production of religious knowledge is still heavily dominated by men. This is important because social and cultural norms remain major barriers to achieving gender equality.
The constitutions and legal systems of Muslim-majority countries can often reflect these patriarchal conceptions of women as occupying limited and prescribed roles in society, namely as mothers, wives, minorities and victims in need of protection.
This has led to the entrenchment of dominant socio-cultural norms in many Muslim countries that view women in ways that do not correspond to the teachings of the Quran.
Patriarchal tribal and cultural norms limit women’s participation and access to power in public and private spheres.
Moreover, some local socio-cultural norms that limit gender equality in Muslim-majority countries are formulated or justified in religious terms, but are in fact rooted in tribalism and patriarchal customs or traditions.
Under the Shari’ah, personal status codes restrict women’s rights in private spaces and can, depending on the country, reinforce inequalities in women’s rights to inherit property, tolerate the coercion of women to marry, limit their rights to guardianship and custody of their children and may even limit their freedom of movement and circulation.
While many constitutions in Muslim-majority countries include, to varying specifics, quotas for the inclusion of women in government, their meaningful participation is still limited. In Morocco, the representation of women has increased thanks to quotas, but women are still exploited by certain political parties.
Sometimes women can find loopholes to circumvent discriminatory provisions, for example by including clauses in their contracts to protect against polygamy, or to secure assets for their daughters to address inequalities related to inheritance. However, it is essential to distinguish between fundamental Islamic ideals of gender equality and male-dominated cultural norms and practices.
The principles of human rights, equality, inclusion and justice are not in contradiction with Islam, on the contrary, they are part of the fundamental pillars of Islam. The great medieval jurist Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah asserted that “the foundation of the Shari’ah is wisdom and the safeguarding of people’s well-being in this life and the next.
In its entirety, it is about justice, mercy, wisdom and goodness. Any rule that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with evil, and wisdom with madness, is a rule that does not belong to sharia, even if it could have been so claimed. according to an interpretation…” (I’lam al-Muwaqi’in an Rabb al-Alamin, vol.1, p.182). The purpose of the law is to protect the welfare of the community and to secure justice.
This opens space for ijtihad to respond to the real social and political circumstances of the Islamic context.
Women’s rights should not be seen in isolation, but as part of democratization and the protection of human rights for all. Morocco has taken positive steps in favor of women’s rights and is committed to implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and peace and security at the national level.
Similarly, the 2011 Constitution guarantees important rights for women, including self-guardianship, a woman no longer needs a male guardian to approve her marriage from the age of 18.
The Penal Code also repealed the Rape and Marriage Act and addressed gender-based violence. Similarly, in 2020, Morocco took action to address domestic violence, child marriage and school dropout through the Marrakesh Declaration to eliminate violence against women and girls.
Despite these achievements, much remains to be done to ensure the equal inclusion of women in all aspects of life. Women still suffer from unequal treatment, sexual harassment, marital rape and corruption. To implement a more inclusive policy, it is essential to develop strategies to overcome barriers, constitutional mechanisms that empower and protect women, a plan of accountability and enforcement measures against discrimination, and means to achieve consensus and inclusion.